The "Corruption"

and this would be how the husband put it. hahahahaha

You see, i obviously scrap a lot right? well- Hailey sees me doing it all the time and asks if she can "work" with me. usually i don't let her for fear of the other kids wanting in on the mess and I'm too lazy to pick up after them. (lame... i know)

but the other day, she comes in and says "mom, can i scrapbook too?"

my heart melted. I was so proud. lol

So of course i jumped out of my seat, grabbed some scrap paper, glue, stickers, and some pics and set her up on the table. i handed her a blank piece of paper and she then says "mom, what am i suppsed to do?"

i had to laugh.

so i showed her how to put a page together and that it was up to her to do anything she wanted. I left the room and came back to find this.

totally cute right? and she was so proud of herself when she completed it. she was showing it off and we had to put it in her scrapbook right after as well. Now she won't stop asking to scrapbook! I'm making up a little box of things that she can just pull out when she wants to do a page. I've also given her a little album to fill for herself. She showed dad her first scrapbook page and his first comment was "you've corrupted her". lol- well.....i say it's about freakin time! :)

and here it is in all it's glory- Hailey's frist scrapbook page ever. adorable yes?

One more thing for you scrappers out there looking for a good deal. Remember when I posted a bunch of packets for sale on my blog? Good news! No- it's not me selling them this time, but close. lol

My good friend Jamie- who used to own a scrapbook store here in town, has put up TONS of packets on her blog. if you want some good stuff for cheap- head over there to get in on the action. This woman has seriously got the buttload of product- so it's all adorable stuff. GO CHECK IT OUT HERE!

HALLELUIAH!

The heavens opened and decided that NOW was FINALLY the time for us to be done.
what am I talking about? Well.. most of you know that Rick has been in school for a (ahem) long time. well folks, the end is here. TODAY marks his final day of school! WOOOOHHOOOOOOO!
That's right. As of 4:30 pm this afternoon, he will be officially done with schooling and this time in 2 days, he'll have his MFA degree! How exciting is this?
well.... Let's recap here:
1) Rick and I have been married for 7 years. Out of those 7 years, he's been a student. Yah.
2) We met in college, which meant he had been in school prior to us getting married. Yah.
3) We have a grand total of 9 years in school.
4) Out of those 9 years, the only "breaks" he's gotten has been Spring break, christmas break, and 2 months one summer to work for his dad before moving to Savannah. Count that.
5) He's been in school NON-STOP for 4.5 years. seriously.

so are we a little excited? um.... YES!
Now for a little "bad" news. He has 5 interviews on MOnday morning. yes- 5! very excited about them. If he gets one of these positions- guess what that means? Yup... more schooling. why you ask? well- they are teaching positions. And even though he has his MFA, that's not exactly a teaching certificate. So he'd have to go back to school to get that sucker. Not too excited about that one. However, guidelines give him up to 3 years to complete it even though he'd be teaching already. So i guess it won't be so bad. just thought that the whole school thing would REALLY be over. oh well.... we'd totally do it if it meant a job and a salary WITH BENEFITS! :)




Ok- so now that all that's been said.. i have a contest I want you to check out real quick. The Nook is sponsoring it and there's a nice $75 gift certificate involved for the winner. And who doesn't like getting free scrap stuff right?! So click this link to find out all the details and sign up. It's going to be a fun one- and it's uber easy.... so there's no reason why you SHOULDN"T do it. :) CLICK THIS LINK TO FIND OUT DETAILS!!

Toodles!

Photoshoot

So in the process of wanting to re-do my living room walls, I need updated pics of the kids. And where does that lead us? PHOTOSHOOT!!! yah- first saturday i haven't had to work, so we went first thing this morning over to the Botanical Gardens. It was a fun outing- but OH MY WORD. There's seriously nothign more frustrating to a photographer who has uncooperative children to photograph. Out of the 100 pictures I took, 1 of each kid turned out. yah.

how about it was either the look of death or the look that says "do you really have to put me through this mom?"

needless to say- i did get some good ones and glad that we went. And I can't tell you how inspired I am by nature. Whenever I see a cool tree or a pretty flower, I always want to take a picture. So of course, going to a Botanical Garden, i HAVE to take pics of the flowers. So i've included a few pictures of what i just HAD to capture. ;)

And I don't know why- but i just love this picture. There's something that's just so innocent and precious about them.

And of course- in true fashion, rick came to the "rescue" to try and get a decent pic of the kids together as well. I never got a shot of all of them together, with all of them looking AT the camera AND smiling. upsets me. So here's the ONE shot of the day that they happened to all look at the camera AND smile at the same time. And of course, my "lessons" to Rick didn't come into play- beacuse as you can see, the kids are blury and the frame is totally not filled. So can I use this? um... nope. gggggrrrrrrr. :)

Now that you have all that visual excitement....... I have to tell you about the YUMMIEST blog. I mean... doesn't this just look so devine?!?!?!

can't remember where i found it, but if you are in the market for what looks like the most delicios cupcakes in the world, check this out. This lady spends A LOT of time making up her own recipes for cupcakes and frosting and then posts all her recipes on her blog. The seriously all look DIVINE! So for all you homemakers out there wanting a good recipe, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to find one on her blog that will suit your needs. I'm DYING to try one. Think i'll make some tonight for the heck of it! http://cupcakeblog.com/

News????

Well- Rick had an interview with a school distrcit up in Memphis on Wed. morning. He has to pass this first interview in order to get to the "next level" of interviews. He passed with "flyping colors" as the guy said!!!! So this main guy then in turn scheduled 4 more interviews with 4 different schools up there with the principles. So Rick graduates on May 31st. The second he's done, we're headed up to Memphis for the weekend. He'll be having all 4 interviews Monday morning and hopefully by the time we get home, we'll know whether he has the job or not.

We are VERY excited. We feel good about getting this position and hope it works out. We are sad that it's not WEST- as we want to be nearer to family, but we'll go where we need to take care of our family first. I just want all the prayers and fingers crossed that we can get for this thing. Its in one of the best school districts in the nation and supposedly pretty tricky to get a job teaching there.

So let's hope for the best and I'll fill ya'll in as soon as we get back! :)

Apparently....

little girl feels the need to wear her food instead of eat it. 'nuff said. :)

First Peek :)

Ok... so I've decided to NOT put off re-decorating my living room. I'd like some sort of change because I'm that ancy for one. So I'm starting the process of getting things together and making the things that will be used.

Here's the first peek into what will be my living room decor. LOVE the colors..... so excited to see it all together!

And.....

Rick got the most fantastic email today. No- it's not a job, although that would be preffered- but he was informed that the faculty and department chair of his department nominated him for student of the year and he got it!!!! He gets to sit in the front of the graduating class at commencement and he'll be singled out and given this award during the program. We don't know if he gets anything- I'm thinking $5000 would be nice, considering how much we've spent on this freakin school- but alas... it'll probably only be some sort of certificate or trophy. But I am SO PROUD of him. He actually would have gotten it when he graduated with his BA- but he didn't walk at the ceremony, and if you don't walk, you don't get it. But he's walking this time and he gets it and I couldn't be more proud of him. He's worked so hard and done so much that I'm very glad he gets recognized for it. One more thing for the resume right? :)

Gift Bag and card

I had a little thank-you gift to give to a friend and wanted to use the May Kit from the Nook.

So here's what I came up with. I actually like it a lot. I do believe I'll need to impliment this idea into a page sometime REAL soon. :)

I had done this this morning and within the hour, Mia came in with a bunch of buttons and immediately I recognized them. Yah- almost right after i finished completing this project, little girl decided to wrip it to pieces. So i had to RE-MAKE it. oh well- that's what i get for leaving it on the table right?

Glad I got it done though- I reallt liked how it came out and it's always nice to hand make a gift. :)

Fun times all around

So remember that story I told a little while ago about going to Mohawk lake and little girl getting bitten by fire ants?


well.... that incident has scarred her for life. literally.

anytime we go ANYWHERE- if she sees a pile of dirt or a mud puddle or a large area of sand.... she freaks out and says "ANTS! They scares me" hahah- and although it's adorable, it's sad how she remembers something like that enough to be scared to death.

SOOOO..... this morning we were up bright and early and decided to go play soccer with the kids before it got too hot. (and just to mention... no- i didn't not play with them. ;)- )

We got to the soccer field and let the kids run loose. Well- it rained a lot yesterday and last night, so there were a few mud patches. And of course.. little miss FREAKED when she saw them.

so i captured a couple of faces in such cases where she was retreating and coming to me to save her from the "ants". cute right?


And then here are a few shots from the "game". they had a fun time- and then we have the team photo. :)




And the winner for the photo of the day goes to the Kaylebmeister. He just HAD to do a 'victory" pose when he made a goal. Freakin hilarious. I love this kid.







like i said- it was a fun morning.



Then i got to treck to work- for what was the last day for me (sad- i know.. i just can't do it anymore)- and i took my computer to fiddle around with some pics that I took. My plan is to completely re-decorate my living room when we move. I have everything I need. I wasn't planning on doing it until we moved, but plannin in being here for the summer- i'm too ancy to NOT do it now. So i'm working on a few things to get that all in to place. I plan on blowing up a few pics i've taken from various places and framing them to hang up. But i saw this way cool technique used from someone on Etsy- so I had to try myself. Here's what I've come up with so far- what do you think of them?



If you like them THAT much.... i'm willing to sell them to ya. ;)- hahahahaha


NOTE: thanks for all the kind words and advice based on last entry. It was totally a hormonal day- and heaven knows I've reached "monster" point and I tend to be a little more harsh and not-so-kind. So be aware that I'm TRYING to be nice! :)

I'm seriously CURSED.

I swear... what is it with either getting screwed over by a refferal or by the Dr. themselves with me? Either I must smell terrible (which seriously shouldn't be the case since i showered this morning-lol) , or they just think i'm plain stupid and don't care.

Clarification:

When i'm prego- i get a midwife. I had a dr. with my first kid and it wasn't a HORRIBLE experience, but there was def. a lack of personalization there. Which is why with #2, i went with a midwife and coulnd't have been happier with the experience. Then it was time for #3 and again- went with the midwife. LOVED it. pleased with almost the entire experience. (for some odd reason unbenounced to me, she couldn't deliver me and i ended up having a dr. i've never met deliver. ugh)
so that led me to #4. When i got prego, i automatically knew who i would go to. The same midwife I had with #3. Well- i call to make the apt. and she no longer works there. She works full time at the hospital now. So they ask if i want a different dr. or to just see the PA. well- I figure, PA.... that will be interesting. So they hook me up with the apt. I've been to the office before, I know how they work, and I've never had problems with it. i was comfortable and I knew where it was and technically know all the nurses anyway- so why switch right?
WRONG.
i show up for my first apt. and i enter the room and they say- well the PA is swamped today, so you're going to see the dr. that's over her. It'd be nice to meet her regardless. So I say ok. Never had a girl DOCTOR before. should be interesting. she walks in and was pleasant enough. did the apt. sat down and talked with her- seemed nice enough, but i could tell that she was "one of those Dr.'s" that really didn't care.

INSERT:
down here in the south- if you have more than 2 kids... you're gonna get looks. seriously. When iw as prego with #3 and I'd walk in the supermarket, yah.... got looks ALL the time. When i went in for apt's at the dr.- there would be comments like "#3 already huh? wow... and you're only 24. don't know how you do it."
well.... whatever. so needless to say- when you get prego with #4 and walk into the supermarket with the 3 others... you're gonna get looks. And once again- you go to the Dr. and for some reaosn, people can't fathom that i actually WANT children and the fact that i'm 26 and on my 4th doesn't bother me.... well- lets' just say that I think people should keep the comments to themselves.

BACK TO THE STORY:
So- aside from my Dr.'s "assumptions"..... she pretty much doesn't care. period. From that very apt.- i've only seen her. every time. She'll walk in, (without saying HI or How are you), do her thing, then hand me the piece of paper that says what was done and when to see her next. Because we all KNOW that it only matters that she gets paid for what she's "DOING". whatever.
So we continue on...... still have not liked her, but too lazy to really go out and find another dr and switch insurance and whatnot. so I stay and deal with it.
Then it comes to the apt. i had about a month ago and for ONCE- she finally stays in the room for an uncalculated minute- but it was only to ask if I was thinking of getting my tubes tied.
UM....

EXCUSE ME?!?!?!?!??!!

i was dumbfounded. If i wouldn't have been charged with aggrivated assult- i would have slapped her silly or sat on her or something. lol- she seriously asked me that! well- i pretty much said NO WAY and seh proceeded to "inform" me that if it were a possibility that i'd have to file paperwork 30 days prior to the due date to even have the procedure done.

well thanks for the USELESS information lady. THE NERVE.

and then once again- i have my apt. today and she walks in- does her thing, proceeds to tell me the exact same lecture she's given me for the past 4 months about weight and eating right and blah blah blah.. (because i haven't been prego before and have no clue how to do anything) and then walks out of the room.

No presonalization. She has no clue that she's told me the same thing like 10 gazillion times. She has no clue that I have feelings or care about this child or whatever. All she knows is that I'm 26, on my 4th kid, and that I"m not goign to get my tubes tied.

why on earth would i want someone like that taking part in one of the most important days of my life? not that i really have a choice at this point- but still!


so like i said... i'm cursed. might as well get used to it. Either that- or maybe one day... i'll finally get the nerve to actually take action at the first sign of not liking something. Heaven forbid i try a NEW place or a NEW person for helping me with my health right? *sigh*

rant over. hahahahahaahaha :)-

TA DA!!!!!!

The flower escipade is finally over. After several phone calls from the mama.... they FINALLY delivered a decent, beautiful bouquet!!! The lady showed up at my door around 6 this evening and said "I'm here to deliver your flowers." I then said thank you and she said "i'm sorry about the last ones. hope you had a nice Mothers Day".

I mean.... honestly- i wish i still had the old ones to physically show her what they looked like when i threw them away this morning. But alas- all is over and i have a nice smelly thing sitting right on my table making it's presence known! Now... isn't this a whole lot better? This is how an iris and rose should look upon delivery. And i got a bonus- they included a butterfly!! :)-

Thanks mama! You're the bestest! :)

New Page!

Here's my first project using my new and DELICIOUS Upsy Daisy product. Isn't it to die for?

Head on over to the Upsy Daisy blog and make sure you leave a comment on every project posted until the end of the month. With every comment you leave- you get your name entered into that MASSIVE ribbon stash give-away that I posted a few days ago.

SO go check it out over there and leave some love. Thanks :)

Oh- and if you want this fabulous stuff... head over to the Upsy Daisy site and order some of it. It's seriously adorable. :)

Mothers Day funny

My mom and dad send my sister and I flowers every year for Mothers Day. It's nice to get some- as they are very pretty right?

Well..... here's a funny story for ya.

My sis calls me up on Thursday afternoon and relates this story to me:

she had just gotten her flowers and they typically come with a note attatched with a nice little message. WELL..... there was a nice little message on hers alright. It said (something to the affect of) "Customer is VERY picky. Make sure they look nice."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

now you can't tell me that's not hilarious. so that "customer" is reffering to my mother. Bless her heart- she makes sure that the florist KNOWS that they better send a GOOD solid, fresh bouquet. I guess they kind of forgot to take that little note off of the message that was meant for my sis. But this was her bouquet..... very pretty right?

again... VERY funny. we laughed a good one at that.

THEN:

Yesterday I ran some errands and then went to pick up the kids from school. When we got home, there was a little bouquet sitting on my door step. My first thought was "Are they allowed to just leave a bouquet on the doorstep?" but whatever. Upon closer inspection... this is what was sent to me.

So then.... I call my mom and say thanks for the flowers and how much they sucked. hahahaha- she was a little upset obviously and made a phone call to the florist this morning to get me some new flowers. Can you believe that they actually delivered these? all brown and wilty and sad. Personally- I think it's hilarious. BUT- i'm not the one who paid good money for it. I'd be pretty pissed if i paid money and this is what i got. As of right now.... they were supposed to be delivering a new bouquet today and nothing has come. So i can't make a comparison right now. But i'll post pics of the new bouquet once I get it.

And just for kicks- i took more pics of what it looked like today. I swear- they made this arrangement like a week ago and didn't refrigerate it. so sad right?

Now.... how's that for a funny? I'm still laughing my butt off at the whole thing. My mom... not so much. hahahahahaha :)

Another contest!

Piggy Tales is doing a contest for a couple more days- so make sure you enter this one NOW!

here's the details:

Let us know what you did to celebrate National Scrapbook Day in 100 words or less and you'll be entered in a random drawing for $100 worth of free Piggy Tales product. There will be 3 winners! Please email your entry to contests@piggytales.com by midnight PST, Thursday, May 8th. Winners will be announced on our blog on Friday, 10am PST.

http://www.piggytales.typepad.com

I can't wait to read all the entries!

Debbie Juden
CEO, Chief Designer

and believe me- they do good packages. But how can you not when you have uber cute product huh? :) so be sure to enter!

on another note.... guess what came out today?!?!?

I"M SO EXCITED!!! I went and got it this afternoon and read the first couple chapters. I must admit- it's not as gripping as Twilight was at first, but it's still a good read. Cant' wait to share with ya'll the final review! It might take a while though... i have absolutely no time to read this thing for the next couple weeks. :(

Off to help the husband write/fix/proof read the thesis. ask me how excited I am about that one. ;)-

Upsy Daisy Giveaway!!!

Ok- see this massive amount of ribbon? Want it?

head over to the Upsy Daisy blog and see how you can win it! Scroll down to the April 30 entry to see the details. isn't it cool? Man... i want all that ribbon!!!!